On the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General’s Report linking smoking and cancer, tobacco-caused death and disability persists, killing more than 430,000 Americans per year and disabling millions more with chronic diseases at immense social and financial costs.

The Los Angeles City Council is considering adding electronic cigarettes to the city’s current indoor smoking ban. Including electronic cigarettes in L.A.’s indoor smoking ban is a huge mistake because it may significantly hinder what is emerging as the most promising weapon yet in the fight against tobacco-related illness and death.

Electronic cigarettes are often billed as a safe way for smokers to try to kick their habit. But it’s not just smokers who are getting their fix this way. According to published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 5 middle school students who’ve tried one say they’ve never smoked a “real” cigarette. And between 2011 and 2012, e-cigarettes doubled in popularity among middle and high school students.

At a middle school in the San Francisco Bay Area, Viviana Turincio, an 8th grader, recently noticed some kids smoking in class — or at least, that’s what it looked like.

Medscape: The AAP released a press statement praising the FDA for this effort but also urging increased federal regulation of all tobacco products, including electronic nicotine delivery devices (e-cigarettes). Can you discuss the current regulatory parameters under which the FDA operates? With the example of CVS, does the FDA have the authority to regulate tobacco at the point of sale?